Sperm snagged from afar

Sperm and red blood cells have been manipulated from afar using lasers controlled over the internet. The control panel here shows human red blood cells that have been perforated with lasers (Image: UCI)

Associate professor of physics Norman Heckenberg and his team at the University of Queensland are working on micromanipulation using optical tweezers, focused laser beams brighter than light on the surface of the Sun.

The tweezers "trap" the sperm but the light doesn't heat them up enough to cause damage.

The scientists have been collaborating with the US team lead by Professor Michael Berns of the University of California, Irvine, which specialises in laser surgery and micromanipulation.

Manipulating from a distance

In the latest experiment, the Australian scientists used a control panel on their computer screen to see what the US team was looking at under the microscope. The Australians then performed the procedure.

They moved the cursor over the sperm they wanted to trap, then clicked on the mouse to turn on the trapping laser beam.

"It's a bit like shooting a missile in a computer game," Heckenberg says.

"The question they wanted to ask was whether the data transfer across the internet could be made fast enough for it to work halfway across the world."

The experiment showed that a bandwidth of one gigabyte per second was needed to observe and grab the slippery sperm.

Why trap sperm?

The sperm experiment has implications for in vitro fertilisation, Heckenberg says.

"It helps to cut the tails off the sperm because it makes them easier to handle; they can't swim away," he says.

"Then it's a matter of drilling a hole in the side of the ova and you pop the sperm in."

This technique has been used in the past but yet hasn't been performed online.

The researchers have previously used internet technology to drill surgical holes measuring less than one micrometre (one 1000th of a millimetre) in diameter into red blood cells.

The research shows that the internet will become increasingly useful not only for collaborative scientific research but for performing some medical procedures, Berns says.